Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).
April 17 – The Edinburgh edition of Scottish poet Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is published by William Creech including a portrait of Burns by Alexander Nasmyth. Burns has great social success in the city's literary circles; 16-year-old Walter Scott meets him at the house of Adam Ferguson. On December 4 he meets Agnes Maclehose at a party given by Miss Erskine Nimmo.
Robert Burns:
Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (see also the editions of 1786, 1793)
see also Richard Glover's The Scots Musical Museum, below
Anne Francis, Charlotte to Werter
Richard Glover, The Atheniad
James Johnson, editor, The Scots Musical Museum, an anthology with 177 of the 600 songs written by Robert Burns, who had collected many of the others; published in six volumes from this year to 1803; Volumes 2–5 edited by Burns
George Keate, The Distressed Poet
Sophia Lee, A Hermit's Tale, published anonymously
Robert Merry, Paulina; or, The Russian Daughter
John Ogilvie, The Fame of the Druids, published anonymously
Henry James Pye, Poems on Various Subjects, including "Aerophorion", possibly the first poem about an aviator (James Sadler (balloonist))
Edward Rushton, West-Indian Eclogues, published anonymously
John Thelwall, Poems on Various Subjects
John Wolcot, writing under the pen name "Peter Pindar", Ode Upon Ode; or, A Peep at St. James
Ann Yearsley, Poems, on Various Subjects
Joel Barlow, The Vision of Columbus, nine books; describes America as prosperous and improving, seeks to promote "the love of national liberty" in Americans (revised as The Columbiad 1807)
James Beattie, Poems on Several Occasions
Peter Markoe, Miscellaneous Poems
Jean-François Marmontel, Éléments de littérature, including rewritten parts of Poétique française (1763), French criticism
Évariste-Désiré Parny, Chansons madécasses, prose poems (later set to music by Ravel; France
Death years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
May 14 – Alexander Laing (died 1857), Scottish poet
November 15 – Richard Henry Dana, Sr. (died 1879), American poet, critic and lawyer
November 21 – Bryan Procter ("Barry Cornwall") (died 1874), English poet
December 16 – Mary Russell Mitford (died 1855), English novelist, poet and dramatist
Margaret Miller Davidson, Sr. (died 1844), American novelist, mother of poets Lucretia Maria Davidson, Margaret Miller Davidson and Levi P. Davidson
Susanna Hawkins (died 1868), Scottish poet
Birth years link to the corresponding "[year] in poetry" article:
February 13 – Ruđer Bošković (born 1711), Ragusan polymath and poet
September 1 – Agatha Lovisa de la Myle (born 1724), Baltic-German and Latvian poet
September – Moses Browne (born 1704), English poet and clergyman
November 3 – Robert Lowth (born 1710), English Anglican Bishop, poet, professor of poetry at the University of Oxford, grammarian who wrote one of the most influential textbooks on English grammar
December 18 – Soame Jenyns (born 1704), English writer and poet
